photo-eye Bookstore + Project Space is pleased to announce an exhibition of photographs by Alejandro Cartagena entitled Carpoolers. Carpoolers is the latest series in Cartagena’s on-going project investigating the shifting political, economic and physical landscape of Mexico. Twice a week over for a year, Cartagena stood on the pedestrian overpass of Mexico’s Federal Highway 85 shooting downward at the six lanes of traffic, capturing the ubiquitous work trucks heading to the expanding suburbs. The truck beds contain not only the expected supplies, but also hidden riders; laborers catching a dangerous free ride to job sites, lying carefully arranged among the cargo, at times appearing like a still life or diorama. Carpoolers has also been released as an exceptional new monograph of the same title. Signed copies and a limited edition are available.
Alejandro Cartagena’s work has been exhibited internationally and is in the collections of several museums including: SFMOMA, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Portland Museum of Art, Museo de Arte Moderno in Rio, Brazil, Fototeca de Nuevo Leon, Mexico and Fototeca Nacional in Pachuca, Mexico. Cartagena’s numerous awards include: the Photolucida Critical Mass Book Award, the Santa Fe Photography Prize, the Prix Pictet Prize, as well as being named to PDN’s 30 emerging photographers, and a finalist for the Aperture Portfolio Prize. Cartagena lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico.